In defense of the epic fantasy’s much-maligned final act.
It’s all about “The Bells,” really.
“The Long Night” wasGame of Thrones' biggest battle episode ever, which is saying something.
Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen on ‘Game of Thrones’.HBO
The only light came from the flames the living used as their main weapon against the dead.
By contrast, Sapochnik andThronesshowrunners David Benioff and D.B.
Weiss sought to portray an elemental battle between life and death, darkness and light, ice and fire.
A scene from ‘Game of Thrones’ season 8, episode 5, ‘The Bells’.HBO
The episode is not without its flaws, of course.
Meanwhile, some characters' survival was just baffling.
Rhaegal the green dragon should’ve gone down in “The Long Night,” too.
Maisie Williams as Arya Stark, Isaac Hempstead Wright as Bran Stark, and Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark in the final episode of ‘Game of Thrones’.Macall B. Polay/HBO
Man, I love “The Bells.”
It is the glorious, bloody, world-shaking climax thatGame of Thronesdeserved.
Yet Dany’s destruction of King’s Landing doesn’t come out of nowhere.
The seeds of Targaryen hubris had been planted throughout the show.
In “The Bells,” the Lannisters finally get theirs.
Revenge will always leave you cold.
So in the absence of destiny, Daenerys chooses violence.
So she chooses fear; who would dare oppose her after she burns down the capital?
Whoever wins the game of thrones, they lose.
It is Sapochnik’s masterstroke at the end of a show full of great work.
It feels painful to watch, yes, and it should; war is terrible.
